"THE SMURFS 2" PG  Tots 5 and older (perhaps some a bit younger) will grin their way through this sequel to "The Smurfs" (PG, 2011). It is, as was the first film, a mix of animation and live action, this time also in 3-D. A crisis hits the Smurfs' idyllic woodland village: Smurfette (voice of Katy Perry) is snatched through a space-time portal by Vexy (Christina Ricci), who is sent by the evil bucktoothed wizard, Gargamel (Hank Azaria). Vexy and Hackus (J.B. Smoove), aka the Naughties, are Gargamel's creations  Smurf-like beings, but in his own evil image. He just needs a dash of "Smurf essence" from Smurfette to control the Smurf universe. Once Papa Smurf (the late Jonathan Winters) realizes that Smurfette has been abducted, he deputizes Clumsy Smurf (Anton Yelchin), Grouchy Smurf (George Lopez) and the mirror-gazing Vanity Smurf (John Oliver) to go with him to the rescue. Seeking human help, they burst through the continuum and into the Manhattan apartment of Patrick (Neil Patrick Harris), their pal from the first film, his wife (Jayma Mays), their toddler son (Jacob Tremblay) and Patrick's visiting stepdad (Brendan Gleeson). Gargamel is holding Smurfette prisoner in Paris, where the wizard has been doing his magic act to sellout crowds at the Paris Opera. So Smurfs and humans all go there to save her. All the talk about how Papa Smurf's magic and love turned the adopted Smurfette into a good Smurf offers a nuanced message about non-biological families, paralleled in a reconciliation between Patrick and his stepdad.

THE BOTTOM LINE: In his act at the Paris Opera, Gargamel turns audience members into toads and, on the street, zaps a taxi into the air after the driver annoys him. Even his sort-of talking cat Azrael (Frank Welker) doesn't like him. Gargamel's cranky magic  laserlike flashes and transformations that endanger Smurfette and others  could briefly discomfit the youngest kids, particularly in 3-D. In a droll bit at his son's birthday party, Patrick spoofs all the food allergies parents worry about.

"2 GUNS" R  Too graphically violent for most high-schoolers under 16 (though many of them will likely see it), this action-crime-comedy gets high marks for teaming Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg, and for the sharp repartee and boys-will-be-boys macho antics they engage in so well. Based on a series of graphic novels by Steven Grant, the movie thrives on twists, turns, and a carelessness about death. Indeed, the escalating body count and convoluted plot start to work against it. The whole thing takes on a certain heartless quality by the third act. Before that, however, Washington and Wahlberg tear up the place. When we meet Stig (Wahlberg) and Bobby (Washington) in a small western town, they appear to be a pair of low-grade smart-mouth bank robbers. They blow the doors off a wall of safe deposit boxes and discover nearly $40 million more than they expected to find. In a flashback, we learn that their bank heist was aimed at cash belonging to a Mexican drug lord, Papi (Edward James Olmos). We also discover that Bobby is a DEA agent and Stig is with Naval Intelligence, each working undercover and fooling the other. The extra millions link Papi to the CIA. It also appears that Bobby and Stig are being played  Bobby by his fellow agent and sometime lover Deb (Paula Patton), and Stig by his commanding officer (James Marsden). A sadistic enforcer (Bill Paxton) claims to be a CIA guy and wants the cash.

THE BOTTOM LINE: A scene in which Wahlberg's Stig shoots the heads off live chickens probably wins the prize for unusual R-rated violence and simulated animal cruelty. The film features numerous point-blank shooting deaths, gun battles, skull-banging fights, explosions, fires and crazy car chases. Thugs string the two men up by their ankles and beat them. Papi threatens all kinds of harm to Bobby's and Stig's privates. Bobby and Deb have a bedroom scene in which she is topless, but with no explicit sexual situation. There is much strong profanity and a bit of toilet humor.

"TURBO" PG  A garden snail named Turbo (voice of Ryan Reynolds) dreams of racing at the Indy 500 in this enjoyably offbeat fable in 3-D animation. Richly funny and visually exciting, it should be a treat for kids 6 and older. Turbo works in a Los Angeles backyard with other snails, and watches car races on TV. He longs for speed, though his big brother Chet (Paul Giamatti) begs him to accept his limitations. One day, while admiring traffic from a bridge, Turbo falls onto the highway and gets caught up in a drag race. Sucked into an exhaust system and bathed in a blast of nitrous oxide, he emerges with the power to travel at blinding speeds. When a crow snatches Chet, Turbo vrooms to the rescue. The chase ends on a taco truck in Van Nuys, driven by Tito (Michael Pena). In a lovely touch, the relationship between Turbo and Chet parallels the relationship between Tito and his older brother Angelo (Luis Guzman), who runs a struggling taco shop in an urban strip mall. Tito races pet snails for fun  not speed. When he sees Turbo's gifts, he takes him to the Indy 500, proving to Chet and Angelo that dreams can come true.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Some of Turbo's adventures may look scary to under-6s, especially in 3-D, when he gets sucked into the exhaust system, and when he rescues Chet from the swooping crow and braves highway traffic. In the Indy 500, Turbo is nearly wiped out by debris and race cars. A chain-reaction crash on the track looks dangerous. A human character seems to drink beer. Turbo learns, after meeting champion driver Guy Gagnι (Bill Hader), that your idols can disappoint you.

"DESPICABLE ME 2" PG  Kids 6 and older will get a charge and a giggle out of this animated 3-D sequel. The dark humor that hung too heavily over the original film's ("Despicable Me," PG, 2010) first act is gone and good riddance. Gru (voice of Steve Carell), the pointy-nosed, spindly-legged former villain has given up evil since he adopted orphans Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier) and Agnes (Elsie Kate Fisher). Enter a clumsy but likable secret agent (and potential love interest for Gru) named Lucy (Kristen Wiig) from the Anti-Villain League. Instead of just asking Gru to work for them, she abducts him. She and her boss (Steve Coogan) want Gru to pose as the owner of a cupcake store in a shopping mall while searching for the evil inventor of a serum that turns benign creatures into monsters.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The bad guy's serum turns a bunny, and later some of Gru's minions, into jagged-toothed monsters. Some under-6s may find this unsettling, especially in 3-D. A huge shark bares its teeth at Lucy and Gru while they're in a mini-sub. Gru recalls how unpopular he was as a kid. We see one minion's bare behind.

"THE WOLVERINE" PG-13  While it is surprisingly violent and bloody for a PG-13, "The Wolverine" is also complex, moody, exotic, and only occasionally tedious. The film will give high-school-age fans of the five earlier "X-Men" films (all PG-13s) much to chew on and a satisfying thrill ride. It may be too violent for some middle- schoolers. In a prisoner of war camp near Nagasaki, Japan, at the end of World War II, we meet the soldier Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), chained in a hole. With his immortal healing powers, he protects a humane young guard, Yashida (Ken Yamamura), from the atomic bomb blast. Cut to the present. A depressed Logan, suffering awful nightmares and dream visits from his lost love Jean Grey, aka Phoenix (Famke Janssen), lives in the Yukon, apart from his fellow X-Men mutant heroes. He picks a bar fight with the hunter who killed his favorite grizzly. (We hear distant screams of other hunters the bear killed first.) This reveals Logan to Yukio (Rila Fukushima), a petite martial-arts fighter from Japan. She tells him that the now elderly and rich Yashida (played by Hal Yamanouchi) wants to say thanks and farewell. In Tokyo, Logan finds Yashida's family riven by rivalries and menaced by Ninja fighters. Logan risks losing his immortality in trying to save Yashida's beautiful granddaughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto).

THE BOTTOM LINE: The movie shows or strongly implies impalements on swords, daggers and the claws that deploy from Wolverine's knuckles. He sustains bloody injuries when his healing powers fail. In one scene, partly off-camera, he makes an incision into his own chest. Wolverine and Mariko kiss and by implication spend a night together. The script features fairly mild profanity.

"R.I.P.D." PG-13  This big, expensive 3-D clunker may send teen audiences straight to sleep. Nick (Ryan Reynolds) is a Boston cop whose partner Hayes (Kevin Bacon) murders him and makes it look like criminals did it. As Nick dies, he sees the world around him go into suspended animation as he's sucked into a vortex. He lands at the bustling R.I.P.D. headquarters, run by Proctor (Mary-Louise Parker). Everyone at R.I.P.D. is a dead cop, working off sins to lessen their final judgment. Nick, we learn, was crooked, and is put to work.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Little or no blood flows, but "R.I.P.D." shows skull-cracking mayhem, point-blank gunfire and destructive car chases. Character use the S-word quite a lot, and there is mild visual sexual innuendo. Roy says "I bought my love by the hour," implying he frequented brothels. He uses the slur "no-count Injuns."